The dust settles, resulting in a scattered recollection

It is now December 28th. As I notice fellow Hartwick College students take off on the j-term study abroad trips, where a month is spent taking a class in places like South Africa, China, and Thailand, the reality comes back for my own decision. A month and a few days from now I will be embarking on a long plane ride. Hopefully there will be some cool places to spend a layover done in the style of Anthony Bourdain's new show on the Travel Channel. Personally I'm rooting for Hong Kong or Tokyo. I figure these places would be good to quickly adjust me to living in a city with ten million inhabitants for four months.

My projected thirteen hours of restlessness will no doubt leave me stranded in some place like San Fran. With my luck, I expect to meet an untimely end getting hit by a cable car. If not, I’ll trip over a Deadhead (bad pun) and roll down one of those terraced hills like a pinball before splashing unconscious into the bay. I’ll wash up on Alcatraz and spend my afterlife being the constant subject of ghost tours, trying in vain to tell people just how un-cool my death was over EVP’s. If my layover does leave me in San Fran, my motivation to stop cowering in the airport for fear of screwing up somehow and missing the plane will only take me as far as the hotdog trolley.

"DUDE, DID YOU JUST HEAR THAT?!"

     
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Seoul is fixing to throw my five senses into orbit.

The Banpo Bridge, Seoul          

          For once in these pre-departure posts, I would like to spend some time looking back instead of forward. As you can see from the last post, one where I was only just sending in an application, a lot has happened and I have left you, dear reader, un-scooped. Of course judging from the page-views I guess this hasn’t been a cause for sadness.

          I was accepted to the International Study Abroad program on November 18^th. Here’s the official link to the program details: http://studiesabroad.co.uk/seoul. This news came just in time for Thanksgiving break, a time that I and students all over the United States spent flipping off the calendar in hopes that the rest of the semester would bug-off. Only for me this was also the time when I was filling out lots of forms.

          Studying for finals, writing/stressing papers and reading expiration dates became a way of life for that long, long, stretch of time after break. My room-mate and I spent many nights cursing the assignments yet to be done, foregoing work for a few nights in a row to watch the U.K. series Survivors. Do I recommend watching this show while in a rational mindset? Nope. Do I recommend this show while hoping that an incurable disease sweeps the Earth and turns cities into a post-apocalyptic playground? Why, yes, in fact. Oh, the population of the world is now 1/3 of what it used to be? Looks like that F won’t be counting after all.

           As with most predicted end-of-days scenarios, the date of finals came and passed. Those final days of acting homeless and living in the library paid off and I actually did fine. I moved out of my cabin at the Pine Lake campus at my school and spent the next week or two hanging with the family. This was a welcome respite, but it can also be tiring in its own way at times. Kim Jong Il also died, which is awesome except for Kim Jong Un. I think it can be widely agreed that his demeanor is considerably more cold and calculating than his clown-like father. No more threats from a guy in his dad’s gym outfit.

Now, Christmas is over and I am again in the rare position of being master of my own time. Now we are at the present. Look out for updates!

Three Korean inspired dishes I had this semester:

Kimchi (김치) – Pickled Cabbage w/ red chilis

Found on Closet Cooking Blog being delicious

I bought a jar of this in a Korean specialty store in Syracuse. This stuff is not for everyone, but it certainly is for me. It boasts an intimidating, though not unbearable rotting smell. Don’t be lame though. Try a little with rice or in your ramen noodles. This pickled treat is larger than life in Korea. It’s spicy, crisp and (not so importantly) pretty good for you.

Tilapia Fillet with Gochujang (고추장) – fermented red chili paste

“You bought tilapia as a college student?” You must be thinking I drove my parent’s Audi to school, but really there was a two for one special at the grocery store. This paste and fish is a combo that’s nothing short of delicious. Eat this as fish and chips and you’ll be in heaven. This paste is supposed to be really hot, and either I’ve burnt my taste buds out or this wasn’t too bad -- but still had a nice kick. Classy, subtle flavor. All you have to do is place the fillets in a greased baking pan, throw on an unhealthy amount of butter (think Paula Deen), and use your head when applying those spices. Garlic salt, oregano, sesame seeds, get that sizzlin’ and bubblin’ for ten minutes per 1/3” of thickness.

Bibimbap (비빔밥) – a mixed meal of sautéed veggies, rice, gochujang, fried egg, carrots, kimchi, and beef usually served warm

Photo-Friendly Bibimbap

An Abomination

The picture above is the bibimbap I prepared, which, it should be noted, is miles from how it should be. I used carrots, bean sprouts, rice, a fried egg, sesame seeds and maybe something else that has slipped my mind. Oh well. It’s best when set in the oven so that the rice takes on an authentic baked quality and the meal is kept at a good temperature. This will definitely give you that full, satisfied feeling.

Outset and Introduction...

For my application to study abroad they asked me for a personal statement. Among the questions they ask of the applicant are the following:
-What are your academic goals?
-Why do you want to study abroad?
-Why have you chosen this particular program?
-What does this program mean to you personally and professionally?

Without further ado, this is the personal statement attached to my application:

                I am strongly magnetized in the direction of studying Korea. I believe there is much to be learned from this country which has stood in the shadow of China and Japan for many others. Korea has many distinct features which are applicable to economics and political science. Studying here will help me to decide which field I want to focus on which will lead to my declaration of one of those two majors. My senior thesis will most likely be based on the issues in that society. Some examples of issues I could explore would be the question of re-unification of the two Koreas or the impact on Korea’s economy which technology has made.

                The Korean War still lingers fresh in the mind of every Korean citizen. After the Korean War, the South had a GDP which was on par with Ghana. Now it is one of the world’s top economies while the North still suffers under the yoke of one of the last pure Communist countries in the world. This is just an example of the many different paths I could expand upon for a senior thesis. This is a goldmine of economic and political research and whichever one interests me more from my experience abroad will be my declared major. I will also be maintaining an entertaining and educational blog based upon said experience. I am treating this experience like an independent field project.

                For these reasons, Korea is undoubtedly a sound choice in my professional development. Yet these reasons dis-regard the vast opportunities for personal discovery. I grew up in a village with a serious lack of diversity. This, I feel, has left a huge hole in my childhood. Every day after school I would collapse exhausted on to my couch and dream of other places. I would reach for the T.V. remote and without fail I would always end up tuned in to the Travel Channel. As long as the program covered somewhere other than my town I would be interested.

                When I arrived at college I immediately set out to fix this problem. I became friends with people from vastly different backgrounds and asked questions and listened intently to what they had to say. I met a girl from Korea and she and I became good friends. I became interested in how, for instance, she could speak so fluidly in a language so alien to anything I had known whenever her mother called, hang up the phone and then speak perfect English. What I had only heard of from foreign places through the T.V. or from small talk in passing conversation within the bounds of my village was now accessible to me. I began asking her more questions, watching Korean movies, and when finally Christmas came I picked up a present for myself; a Korean language book.

                I learned the Korean alphabet easily; it was meant to be this way when King Sejong developed it in the Fifteenth Century. Soon I was able to read what (to the uninitiated) appears to be another hopelessly complicated Asian script. I was encouraged by this and became even more entrenched in my interest.

                It has been almost a year since this discovery of reading. My motivation to learn more has only grown and I am ready to go abroad. This year is the only year I can comfortably travel before buckling down to declare and complete a major. The questions I have will find answer here. Most consuming of all is the curiosity I have with regards to what the world holds for me.